遅すぎる Seconds too late
by nagareboshixx
Summary: Set during the Sasuke and Sai Arc. Sai's mission to kill Sasuke however, is but a decoy for Danzo's true motives. Don't let your imagination run wild this is only rated T after all.
1. Layers of inception

It was almost funny. "No," Sai corrected himself, he wasn't supposed to feel any emotion anyway, even at the irony of the whole situation. They really had believed him to help them find Sasuke. The expression of trust was written all over their face s, and at the moment in time, he had knew how vulnerable you could make yourself, exposing feelings like that. They would probably be looking at his bingo book now and thinking with horror, that his mission must be to kill the threat to Konoha, Sasuke Uchiha.

Not quite.

After all, that was just another deception in his seemingly never-ending string of lies.

He crept closer to the room where he sensed the chakra was coming from, careful to stay in the shadows all the while. The flow of chakra seemed peaceful enough, indicative that the other boy was resting, or with his luck, asleep. Easy prey. The perfect time to strike and play his hand. After all, he didn't want to take any chances with this one after reading his file. Finally reaching the room and sneaking a quick glance in, the gentle rise and fall of the body on the bed confirmed his deductions.

The drawings of the snakes on his paper animated slowly and slithered over to where the Uchiha's body lay. In the blink of an eye, they were wrapped around his body tightly, preventing any movement whatsoever. It was only then that Sai saw the boy finally awake with a jerk.

Sasuke awoke with a start. He had been having a good sleep until he suddenly felt something wrapped tightly around him. Glancing down, he realized his wrists were held together, pinned to his back and wrapped with snakes that looked like they had been drawn with ink. Silently cursing himself for letting his guard down so easily, he felt the slightest waves of anger course through his veins. He did not appreciate having his rest disturbed. "What is the meaning of this? Show yourself," he said calmly yet in a dangerously low tone.

What emerged from the shadows was unexpected. It was a boy around his age with black hair and eyes, as well as the palest skin he had ever seen. His face was completely devoid of any emotions whatsoever, which Sasuke realized with a chill, resembled his own. He then finally noticed the headband the boy was wearing and his eyes narrowed. _Konoha_.

The boy walked slowly towards the bed in a purposeful manner, looming over him in a matter of seconds. Sasuke refused to be intimidated. This was as far as this little game would go. Whatever this mysterious visitor was here for couldn't be good. He activated his sharingan, intending to put the enemy under a genjutsu.

Or at least he tried to.

Sasuke immediately felt sharp pain searing through his whole body which burned at every part of him. It took a huge part of his willpower to only let out a muffled cry through his lips.

Sai almost smirked then and there. _Almost_. "It's useless, Uchiha. Those snakes are absorbing your chakra as we speak, leaving you none left for any escape attempts, I'm sorry to say."

Fear slowly crept into Sasuke's insides as he realized he was now powerless, totally in the mercy of this unknown Leaf shinobi. But of course, with all his pride, he wouldn't let that show and decided to settle for a glare instead. "Don't get too cocky. Orochimaru and Kabuto are still in the base. All I need to do is call for them and you can forget about leaving here alive," he hissed.

"Then I'm afraid I can't let that happen, Sasuke," Sai said as he drew a soaked cloth from his back and covered the Uchiha's nose and mouth with it in a flash. Without saying, the chemical it reeked of was chloroform. Sasuke's eyes widened and he attempted to struggle desperately. However, the bonds held and the cloth muffled his cries for help. He felt the sedative enter his system, furious with himself for inhaling it by accident. It was making his head swim and he couldn't think properly. Somehow, everything was turning black...

Sai watched as the boy slowly ceased squirming around and his eyelids finally fluttered shut. That hadn't been too hard. Part one of his mission was done.

Releasing his technique, he pulled out some ropes from his pocket instead. While the snakes were certainly effective in restraining the boy, it put stress on his own chakra levels as well. He made quick work of Sasuke's wrists and ankles, tying them together as tightly as he could, without a care of how it would affect the boy's blood circulation. Finally, he forced Sasuke's jaws apart with a black cloth and tied it behind his head. Now even if he did wake up, he couldn't make a sound to alert anyone. Sai then placed his hands on the restrains and let his chakra flow into them. This way, it would mask Sasuke's chakra and leave him unable to use any techniques, let alone those lethal eyes of his. Satisfied with his work, Sai hoisted Sasuke's limp body over his shoulder and set off to Konoha at top speed.

After all, the rest of his team, as well as Orochimaru for that matter, would be on his trail very soon.


	2. Intentions true

Sasuke opened his eyes groggily. His vision was rather cloudy for some reason and his head throbbed. Looking around, it was only then he realized he wasn't in Orochimaru's lair anymore. _Where in the world.._. Suddenly, the memories of what had just happened came back in a flash. He quickly took in the situation. He was in a small room without any windows and its only furniture being a chair.

Which he was occupying. Not in a very comfortable manner though, having his torso strapped to it with some leather. He wasn't too surprised to find out his wrists had been bound too, along with his ankles. The questions came in a barrage. _Why am I here why can't I sense my chakra at all who was that boy what does he want with me what does Konoha have to do with this_. Of course, he didn't actually voice those thoughts out. Partly because he didn't want to sound stupid, but more due to the fact there was something in his mouth, making any movement with it aching.

"Well well, I thought you were never going to wake up. And here I was just getting worried the chemical I used was too strong." A voice sounded behind him.

Turning as far as the restrains would allow, Sasuke realized it was the boy from earlier. _Who else had he been expecting anyway?_

Seeing the murderous glare cast his way, Sai chuckled. It wasn't joy or satisfaction he was feeling but he knew this would infuriate the Uchiha. And infuriate it did; the boy was now struggling against the ropes and trying to lunge at him. Considering his mission, agitating his enemy could work in his favour. But, formalities first.

"I suppose I do owe you an explanation," Sai started, watching as Sasuke (finally) stopped and listened. "You don't need to know who I am. Not that I have a name anyway, but I am a part of the Leaf Village's special division of ANBU, Root. As you would probably expect, you face criminal charges as a missing-nin. Normally we wouldn't go to the extent of doing this but you pose a huge threat to Konoha and need to be taken care of. I have been tasked with the mission of extracting a confession from you. Usually, this is taken care of by the Torture and Interrogation Force but your presence here has to be kept a secret for the Hokage is too soft to allow something like this. As long as those ropes are around you, don't even bother trying any tricks; ninjutsu or genjutsu. I'm sorry you had to be gagged, but I don't want to wake my leader with your screams."

As expected, Sasuke's body tensed up as he heard the last sentence. "So, are you going to do this the easy way or the hard way?" Sai questioned as he grasped Sasuke's chin roughly in his hand.

The silence answered him.

"Well then," Sai continued, "I'll just have to force it out of you."

There was a knock on the door. "Ah, perfect timing," Sai murmured, walking over to the door and opening it. Sasuke barely managed to catch a glimpse of a nervous-looking girl passing a device to his captor. Closer inspection told him what it was and he barely could stop his heart rate from going up. _How did they know..._

Sai seemed to read his thoughts. "I never would have guessed it myself until I read your file. It seems you have a particular weakness to electricity as seen from the report of your mission to the Land of Tea, rather ironic considering that jutsu called Chidori is one of the deadliest in your arsenal," he said as he attached the wires from the machine to Sasuke's chest, whose efforts to shake them off proved futile due to the lingering effects of the drug.

And just like that, without warning, the dial was turned.

Sasuke felt a tingling sensation spread over his whole body, which erupted into a feeling of burning fire. It took all of his willpower to bite his tongue, to stop himself from screaming for the pain was immeasurable. It felt as though he was being roasted alive inside.

After, watching the Uchiha strain against his bonds as he writhed on the chair for a full thirty seconds, Sai had to admit he was rather impressed. He turned the dial down. The boy hadn't made a sound throughout the whole procedure and the only indication he had given was the ragged breaths that echoed through the room now. Perhaps he would need a higher voltage and let it run for a longer period of time too.

Sasuke felt relief for a few seconds as he allowed himself to breathe. _No_, rather he was gasping for air, which proved to be quite a difficult task with the cloth around his mouth. His enemy could be crushed in a matter of seconds even if Kusanagi had been taken from him. Or he could burn him into nothing but ashes. A chidori through his guts would let him have a taste of his own medicine. If only he could break free of the ropes encircling his wrists! The mere thought just intensified his rage further.

Sai allowed himself to be on the receiving end of the death glare for a while before turning the dial again, making sure the rotation was a bit further this time.

This time, there was the sound of muffled screaming. Sasuke closed his eyes shut it pain as every part of his body burned and his muscles collapsed into a fit of uncontrollable spasms.

After deciding the torture was long enough, Sai cut off the electricity once again. He walked over and grabbed Sasuke by the hair, noticing the few minutes of being electrocuted had left it completely drenched. To Sasuke's credit, he only let out a grunt of pain that was barely audible as he was made to stare right into the face of his captor. "I see you're a tough one. How about this? I don't need a confession now per se, any information on Orochimaru and his location will do as well. You don't have any loyalty to him after all, just as you have no loyalty to the Hidden Leaf. Think of it as a brief compromise. I will then remove the gag and we will be left to more civil methods of communication."

Sasuke jerked his head out of the other boy's hold and fell silent once again. Sai sighed. He could have guessed as much. Sauske was probably withholding the information from him just because he wanted to. Probably something to do with that darned pride all of them Uchihas seemed to have.

"Not bad, Uchiha. It's amazing you aren't paralyzed yet after all that. Guess I need to do more to convince you, don't I?" he said in a monotone voice. The Uchiha hadn't begged, cried or pleaded for it to stop like so many others before him did. Then again, this was Orochimaru's apprentice and the last of his elite clan so it was to be expected in some way. Sai walked back to the device and turned it on once again. This was taking way too long.

Sasuke's body jerked one final time before he felt darkness clouding his vision, drawing him into a dark and cold abyss filled with nothing, completely void. Sai watched as Sasuke finally went still, his head lolling on his chest as his body sagged forward, kept upright only by the leather strap. He checked the pulse on Sasuke's neck. Oh well, at least he was still alive if not unconscious. Now, he would have to wait for him to wake up before continuing.

It seemed more drastic measures would have to be taken.

* * *

Rosebunse: Thank you! Your encouragement means a lot to me as this is after all, but my first story. I'm glad you like it :)


	3. Piecing the puzzle

They had been fooled. _Again. _The way Sai had smiled so innocently at them; his final drawing of the friendship he had claimed to still hold on so dearly to in the picture book and even his almost genuine desire to know more about bonds; were they not distractions to tug at their heartstrings? For an emotionless cad, he was very good at the art of manipulation and deception. Could it really be that under that mask of a smile lay intention of malice? Could it really be that he had killed his own brother in cold blood? Was everything just another cover for his true mission?

Naruto slammed his fist against the wall in anger. And now, Captain Yamato had told him and Sakura that they had missed their former teammate by a few seconds. Just moments ago, his chakra signature had been in this room. Now, for all he knew, the person he had devoted three years of his life trying to save could be dead; his body being disposed off at this very moment. If only they had just run a little faster. If only they hadn't been taken in by those lies Sai fed them. _Lies lies lies..._

Captain Yamato's words dragged him out of his self-accusing inner thoughts. "Take heart, our mission has not ended in failure. It is possible that the bingo book itself is another red herring, just as the rest of Sai's actions have proved to be. Sasuke may be with him, whether he was taken by force or went willingly I do not know. However, what I can be sure of is that Sai is heading back to the Leaf Village right now. Whatever the situation may be, we should intercept him."

Saukra muttered nervously, "Sai is quick on his feet though from what I have observed during our training sessions. It is likely that he will already have retreated to his headquarters, wherever that is."

"Ah," Yamato let out a knowing smile, "I do have an inkling of where the headquarters of Root, the special division Sai works for, is. Root is still under ANBU after all and I have been made trips to the place a few times."

"Then what are we waiting for!" Naruto almost yelled, "We have to go now!"

"Patience, young one," Yamato said calmly, "I have a plan. And it involves infiltration."

* * *

Rosebunse and Raigon: Thank you! I will keep that in mind :)

A/N: Sorry this chapter is so short and boring. It's meant to be a build-up for the following chapter and so the story makes sense please bear with it for now!


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